Clarifications are crucial to robust dialogues, and pragmatic factors —
notably those shaped by the world modalities situating the conversation —
have a key role to play. Referring expressions have in vision a modality in which to ground clarifications concerning objects in the world [1]}; navigation instructions have in movement a modality in which to ground clarifications concerning collaborative wayfinding [2]}.
Clarifications grounded in situationally relevant modalities
boost the redundancy required to learn to use language
without explicit supervision, as they make explicit the process of negotiating the communicative intent. But despite its importance, work on clarification remains scattered.
